Predatory Business: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (revise quote template spacing) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 4:
Often employed as a [[Strawman Political]] to reprimand corporate businesses, but may sometimes be an accurate depiction of the dirty tricks that certain big companies use.
When considering whether an example would fit this trope or not, please keep in mind that simply having a large corporate entity in the story may not qualify it as a
For Real Life examples, please keep in mind that as to what constitutes legitimate competition vs. underhanded business practices differs. In the interest of reducing natter, please confine this to fictional examples.
Line 21:
** This trope is definitely in full effect at first. But it is also eventually subverted in that the megacorp is offering cheaper goods, but it still serves the community for the better, as can be seen when Meg Ryan is walking around the store, noticing that groups of adults and children alike are scattered around reading books and having fun. Even though one employee didn't know about the "Shoe" books, there's no indication that they are selling cheap material or using dirty business practices. As Tom Hanks said, "I sell cheap books. Sue me."
* Buy N Large from ''[[WALL-E]]'' is pretty much the end effect of this.
** Also subverted in a weird way. Generally
*** According to [[Word of God]], the Wall-E units suffered some sort of massive production failure, leaving only one active, which is why Buy N Large decided to give up on cleaning up the Earth.
* ''[[Batteries Not Included (film)|Batteries Not Included]]'' had a variation where a corp was trying to buy out the inhabitants of some tenement blocks so they could build a skyscraper in their place. The residents of one block resisted, and the corp started using dirtier and dirtier tactics to get rid of them.
Line 65:
Mona Pizza's got nothin' on us
'Cuz we've got six-thousand-stores-plus! }}
* In ''[[Persona 4]]'', Junes is ''regarded'' as one, though it's more a parody of [[Mega Corp
* Pizza Bat in ''[[No More Heroes]] 2: Desperate Struggle'', which has hurt the local fast food places like Burger Suplex.
* ''[[Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator]]'' has this as "Bean There, Done that".
Line 97:
== Real Life ==
* WalMart and other "big-box" stores are pretty much what inspired this trope, whether true or not. In fact, this page used to be called [[Volde Mart]], a portmanteau of WalMart's name with that of [[Harry Potter|Lord Voldemort]].
* Car and tire companies were accused of this in the early 20th century, mostly due to the demise of the electric urban streetcars. Fear of people not buying their products basically encouraged one of the earliest examples of
* Companies such as Monsanto have come under fire and have been seen as this by local farmers, due to neighbouring farms using seeds patented by such companies as these. Unfortunately, the patents are on ''self replicating'' products - meaning that if pollen from a patented plant blows over from a neighbouring plot into yours and starts producing a certain patented genotype or trait... ''they CAN sue you''. Even worse for "organic" farmers since they can not only be sued by Monsanto, but the unintentional hybridization with genetically modified crops renders their own crops non-"organic", driving them out of their niche market.
* Australian retail giants Wesfarmers and Woolworths seem to be taking their cues from WalMart, as [[Hungry Beast]] explains [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1et_HBmLYw here].
| |||